A Brief Consultation
by Galorya
Summary: An awkward moment between Jurassic World's park operations manager and head raptor behaviorist.


**Author's Note: This was just a little idea that wouldn't leave my head until I wrote it down. Enjoy! :)**

"You just went and _made_ a new dinosaur?"

Claire honestly didn't think she could be more annoyed with this man, and the sweltering Central American heat wasn't helping much for her tolerance level either. She should have known better than to think that maybe, just _maybe_ , he would have been more reasonable to deal with since their last meeting. She had quickly realized upon arriving just how naive that idea was. "Yeah, it's kind of what we do here," she responded. Where the hell has he been for the past ten years? Genetic modification and engineering has been around since the very beginning of this park! Without it, none of these assets would even exist, let alone a brand new species. Detecting that Owen had no real interest in arguing that exact point, something which came as a surprise, Claire proceeded.

"The exhibit opens to the public in three weeks," her speech slowed gradually as she noticed Owen turn and make his way over to her. Claire would be lying if she were to say that this man wasn't intimidating as hell, something that was more than likely the result of working everyday with four of the deadliest killing machines on earth, and his aesthetic appeal certainly helped to the intimidation factor. She would rather die though than to actually admit any of that out loud, however. She had learned the hard way that such a combination of rugged good-looks and laughably laid-back yet dominant behavior did not necessarily mix well in her case. "Mr. Masrani wanted me to," there was a fraction of a pause between her words, "Consult with you."

Shit. Claire's well-established resolve faltered for a split-second, suddenly aware of her choice of words. Consult. Why the hell did she have to choose that word? Thankfully, years of experience had taught her to maintain an icy exterior in the case of embarrassment, but there was nothing that could stop the feeling of dread welling in her body, nor the sudden flip of her stomach. She silently hoped to any sort of higher power that Owen had not caught the slight innuendo or remembered why exactly that word could elicit such a reaction in her. There was a beat of silence between them. So he didn't notice. Thank God.

The smirk on his face however, said otherwise.

 _Damn it._

* * *

 _Several months earlier._

Keeping up with family (in all aspects) was a skill in Claire's life that had been on a steady decline since she had taken this job at Jurassic World. A simple phone call or text had been so much easier to accomplish when in the states. However, this did not in any way mean that she loved her family any less. On some occasions, she did have the time to sit and call her mother, her sister, or even (on the very rarest of occasions) her grandparents.

Even though these random instances were slowly becoming extinct, it didn't stop Claire from making an effort. She had even gone as far as to plan a Christmas visit for her two nephews, Zach and Gray. It had been much too long since she last saw them. What was it? Three? Four years? The point was, neither of the boys had never been to Jurassic World before, and so, wanting to reach out for once, Claire had it marked on the calendar, and begun preparation for the trip. Sure, it was not for another five months or so, but she liked being prepared.

Walking into her office, not even bothering to shut the door, Claire was allowed a moment of rest from what had been a tediously long day. The new asset made from the geniuses over in the Hammond Creation Lab was growing faster than anticipated. Not to mention smarter. She wasn't even fully developed yet and she was able to anticipate where the feeders would come from. A man almost lost an arm today. If another incident such as the one today were to happen again, they would have to start feeding the asset with a crane, and that would cost even more money.

A heavy sigh escaped her as she relaxed into the office chair. She glanced over to the clock on her desk.

 _Exactly 7:30._

Claire sat up, suddenly aware of just how much free time she had at that very moment. Her meeting at 7:30 had been canceled not twenty minutes ago. If she were to be completely honest with herself, she was more than happy to cancel. The thought of having to sit through a meeting with him was almost enough to make her post-pone the damned thing herself. One could argue that Claire was being immature, after all, her daily task involved socializing with people far worse than Owen Grady, but after a recently failed date involving cringe-worthy board shorts, the idea of having to sit in a room, alone, with that man again made Claire want to crawl into a hole and hide for the rest of the evening.

There had been so much promise as to what they could have become. Before their disastrous date, Claire had looked forward to seeing Owen at the required meetings. She would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy hearing about those four raptors, or "his girls." It was endearing to be honest. She would also be wrong denying that his flirting was enjoyed or reciprocated.

One date had changed all of that that, and that was why Claire gladly obliged to a cancelled meeting.

With her sudden and welcome amount of free time, Claire decided to reach out to family once again, and called her sister, Karen. Under normal circumstances, Claire would never take a personal phone call in her office, but seeing as she was the only one in the immediate area (those who worked in this building had already turned in for the evening), she allowed herself this chance of family interaction, and the fact that she hadn't talked to her sister in so long was justification as well.

After only two rings, she heard a familiar and very excited voice answer. " _Hey!_ " Karen said, her smile almost audible through the smartphone. " _What's up? I thought you had a meeting?_ "

"I did," Claire responded, fiddling with a pencil on her desk. "But he cancelled."

She heard a mock gasp over the other line. " _How dare someone cancel on Claire Dearing? Who does he think he is?_ "

A smile tugged at the corner of her lips at her older sister's words. "One of the raptor trainers. It's alright, I'm not entirely surprised. He would have been late anyway."

" _Oooh! Which one was it? Was it the hunky one? With the board shorts?_ "

"'Hunky,' is an interesting way to put it," Claire chuckled, spinning her chair to face the opposite way, "But yes."

Light laughing was heard on the other end. " _You know, even though I never met the guy, I have to say I'm pretty disappointed it didn't work out between you two._ "

Claire had hoped that the conversation wouldn't deviate to this. "Yeah, well, me too," she replied in an almost timid voice. After a beat of silence, she continued, humoring her sister, "He was pretty nice to look at though. It's a shame our last meeting didn't end the way I would have wanted it to." She had to admit, these feelings had been pent up for the last three weeks. The fact that her sister was willing to listen, even joke about it, was refreshing. The chance to let her stoic exterior down for a while was a warmly welcomed gift in Claire's day. Just being able to talk to Karen about something as trivial as her love life was truly therapeutic. It was a rare sight to see Claire take such things as dating lightly. This version of her was something no one here had been exposed to, the only exception being her assistant Zara on rare occasions.

" _Yeah, sorry you didn't get laid._ "

A loud and very uncharacteristic guffaw escaped Claire and echoed into the empty office. "Karen!"

" _Hey, you need it. Don't deny it. You work hard, girl. You should have just gone for it._ "

She couldn't roll her eyes any harder if she tried, but her amused laughter disproved any indication of annoyance. An unfamiliar heat rose to her cheeks as she listened to her sister's incessant teasing. "Karen," She said firmly, finally being able to get a word in.

" _It's like what Mom said that one time, 'If you keep your flint in one drawer and your steel in the other, you'll never strike much of a fire.'_ "

"Karen!"

" _Yes?_ "

Claire sighed, covering her face with her free hand. "While you are not entirely wrong," she continued, lowering her voice slightly. "I still have to be professional about all of this. I'm technically his boss, so in a way," she paused, calculating the most delicate way to put her next choice of words. "It's a good thing that our _consultation_ ended where it did. Getting 'laid' would have just made everything worse."

It was only slightly annoying hearing Karen chuckle. " _Consultation? Really? Is that what we're calling it now?_ "

"Like I said; being professional."

" _Is that what that meeting was for? Were you wanting to consult with him about something?_ "

Claire wasn't sure if her sister would ever drop this topic. She shook her head in disbelief. "You're impossible."

" _So it was!_ "

"No!" She hastily responded, before calmly adding. "I have no intentions to consult with Mr. Grady."

" _Mr. Grady? Is that what you'd call him in-_ "

"Enough!" Though Claire tried to maintain a stern tone, Karen could hear the utter amusement, and embarrassment in Claire's voice. She and her sister were extremely close, and they had been all their lives. She silently thanked god that no one had been in the building to hear this part of the conversation. They both were caught in a quiet bit of giggling for a moment. Claire took a deep breath, before adding in a hushed tone, "Okay, I won't lie. I would have liked to _consult_ with him in his bungalow. That would have been nice." Claire gave in to her sister's joking, relaxing more now that she had joined in on the fun.

Her statement was only met with contained laughter. " _I'm glad I could help,_ " she replied, pausing slightly to regain her composure. " _Now that that's taken care of, let's talk about Christmas, huh?_ "

Claire shook her head in amusement, slowly spinning her chair around once again. What she saw upon stopping caused her heart to nearly stop. Her grip on her phone tightened, her knuckles turning white under the pressure. There, standing in the doorway of her office, arms folded across his chest, looking smug as ever, was Owen Grady.

"Oh, God."

" _Claire? You there?_ "

Claire's silence brought a smirk to Owen's face as he nonchalantly leaned against the door-frame, cocking his head to the side. Her sister's incessant childish teasing paled in comparison to the embarrassment she felt right at this moment. The piercing gaze was practically burning into her as she sat there, absolutely mortified.

" _Claire?_ "

The woman cleared her throat after an excruciating eternity. "I,uh, I'll have to call you back, Karen. My 7:30 showed up." Without even waiting for a response, she hung up, immediately regretting doing so. Now it was just the two of them in her office. There was no way out of this one; no phone call to keep her safe. Claire briefly contemplated crawling under her desk and hiding forever. Normally, she could handle embarrassment. This, however, was in no way normal for her. _He can't see me if I don't move_. She silently wondered if Alan Grant's theory on sight based on movement worked on cocky raptor handlers.

Owen finally broke the silence, chuckling at Claire's uncharacteristic state. Clearly, he enjoyed just how flustered she was. In reality, he had never seen her so uncomfortable; and he absolutely reveled in it. She looked up slowly, her eyes questioning just how long he had been standing in that doorway. He didn't have to respond for her to immediately know; _long enough_.

Ah, yes. This was why she hated Owen Grady.

It was clear that the only way to handle this was to pretend it never happened. Claire straightened in her chair, clearing her throat as she did so. Why was this room suddenly so damn hot? "Mr. Grady," Claire finally spoke, the embarrassment in her voice masked behind a stern tone. "How can I help you?"

Her question was met with the quirk of an eyebrow, that damn smirk still plastered on his face. Still leaning on the door, he responded, "I'm here for our meeting."

Claire's brow furrowed in confusion. "But you cancelled…? You, uh, said there was another issue at the raptor enclosure with the assets-"

"There was," He confirmed, nodding slowly. "The _assets_ , or as I like to call them by their _names_ , Blue and Echo, periodically fight over dominance," He shrugged slightly. "It was one of those nights. I just have to be there to make sure nobody gets seriously hurt. This was one of their shorter fights, so I figured I'd just come here and get this meeting over with. I had time, so why not?"

Claire could certainly tell him, "why not." She would have liked to tell him a lot of things at that moment, but she refrained, her professional attitude fighting its way through. Saying what exactly was on her mind would only make matters worse.

"But," He continued, moving into the room to stand in front of her desk. "Seeing as I'm late and that you were in the middle of a very important phone call-"

"It wasn't important," Claire blurted out defensively, that stupid warm feeling creeping across her body once again upon seeing his smirk transform into a full blown smile.

"I don't know," He said, leaning down to brace both hands on her desk. His expression turned into one of mock-seriousness, though his eyes still sparkled with amusement. "Consultations? Those are _crucial_. You can't miss those. I imagine the ones you were talking about need to be taken care of immediately."

Claire suddenly found it damn near impossible to maintain eye contact with the man leaning on her desk. Feeling so small in the presence of Owen Grady was not ideal in any way. But Claire was not one to back down from anything. As difficult as it was, and as intimidating as his stare was, she stared right back at him, their faces now mere inches from each other. This man would not break her, not while she had any control, no matter how red her face was or how unbearably hot her entire body felt. Owen chuckled again, a sound that made Claire's stomach do a strange, and somewhat uncalled for, flip. He backed away from the desk, standing up straight. "You probably have some unfinished business," He said, making his way to the door. "Let's just postpone this meeting, and uh," Stopping just before the doorway, he turned around to face her again and added with a wink, "We can _consult_ later."

Claire watched him walk out of her office, only waiting until he was out of the door to let out a sigh of relief. She closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose, silently scolding herself for not being more careful. It was a fact; he would never let her live this down. It would be up to her to be the mature adult.

If she was lucky, Owen would never mention it.

* * *

But Claire was not lucky. Well, she was up until this point. Surprisingly, Owen had said nothing of this incident in the past few months, even at the times where she would have to meet alone with each handler. He would be himself, which was an occasional flirty line or two, and a smirk here and there, but nothing more than usual.

That was why she assumed Owen would let this go.

She was wrong.

He moved toward her, closing the large gap between them. The pitch in his voice lowered slightly at their proximity. "Do you want to consult here or..."

 _Oh, God._

"In my bungalow?"

Months of recovery from the embarrassment of that particular incident allowed Claire the ability to show no reaction. Internally, though, her response was not nearly as calm. Her heart-rate increased at the memory, and she felt the familiar warmth spread to her cheeks. As much of an internal struggle she was currently having, her face remained ever impassive. She shook her head at him, annoyed at his teasing. "That's not funny."

His predatory smirk quickly melted into an amused smile; His eyes taking on an ornery glint as he chuckled. "It's a little funny."


End file.
